


What should have never been.

by DrMcNastyPhD



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26743771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrMcNastyPhD/pseuds/DrMcNastyPhD
Summary: Bella's reaction to learning her home town is gone. This is the moment of her learning of the tragedy.this story provides background on Bella's life and her situation before.takes place like 30 minutes before "for old time's sake"  and the night before "under new management"





	What should have never been.

Bella was fine with her life in the shadows. She was fine never having the spotlight oh her. She preferred it that way. Her life was consistent and stable. She could spend all the time she wanted studying and hanging out with Phaele minus the times she was forced to go to boring political stuff. She knew why they sent her to those. It was simply because no one else in the family wanted to do it. She never made any impactful contributions besides agreeing with whatever her uncle wanted. When she was a teenager Neokan would take her to get ice cream or some other treat afterwards so that made it worth it. 

That was the closest she should have ever been to the throne. Sitting 3 chairs away in a boring meeting and the few times she was allowed to climb up on it when she was a child. Her uncle was prince and ruler of the nation. He was the eldest of a line of 12 siblings. Each sibling had any number between 5-8 children except her father, the youngest of the 12. He only had a single daughter. His wife/Bella's mother died during childbirth. He never remarried (he did start courting a few women over the years but it never progressed past simple flirtations) instead devoting himself wholly to his daughter and his work. 

There were 90 people (give or take a few) between her and the throne. The youngest member of the family,Bella was content to spend her days with Phaele and her nights testing her experiments in the arena. Unfortunately that 90 was evaporated along with around 41,892 others in the city of Asoronos.

What happened to be a little vacation she used as an excuse to see the world turned out to be the reason she wasn't number 91.

Bella didn't know how to process the information when it was presented to her in the middle of the night. In the span of a sentence, All of her family, most of the people she'd ever known, and most of the faces she'd ever SEEN, were gone. She was barely getting past that realization before it came in a second wave of memories. She remembered her father most of all. He was very hands on with her despite having a manor full of servants. She remembered the arguments to convince him to let her hang out at Phaele's temple overnight despite it being one of the 2 safest places to be in the city. He would personally tutor her in her magic studies, only getting outside help for schools of magic and subjects that he lacked. She even remembered the nuisances of those times when he handpicked suitors for her in her 20's. Every memory,good, bad, or ugly all became a cherished memory. No matter what she felt in the moment, at least he was there. 

She wasn't prepared for his death, it wasn't even a thought in her mind. Halflings can live up to 2 centuries and he was barely over 80. 

The second thing to hit her was an unusual feeling. Some strange amalgamation of anger and hatred. Bella had never been one for strong emotions beyond excitement. She usually left those for Phaele and her drunken rants. The most she's ever felt negatively towards a person was mild dislike. That changed when the news of the loss of life was attributed to a single person she didn't even know. A person who has never even been to the city. A person who had a personal grudge against someone he never met, from a city he’s never been to, and to get back at that singular person he destroyed the second largest city in the world.

Then she got to experience the pressure and the fear of the expectations of being a ruler. Within minutes of learning this information she had Neokan, a man who had at times been her bodyguard and other times “co-worker” but mainly just acted as her uncle, swearing fealty to her. This man who took care of her for years is now automatically subservient because of this tragedy. She then thinks about the thousand men outside who don’t know that their home and loved ones are gone. That is some tough news to break, and she has to do it. A person who’s major public appearances can be summed up as “zoning out until it’s done.”

These emotions hit her on all at once. And the only thing she could do when faced with this wall of emotion was crack and call out for one of the 3 people who is always there when she feels scared.

“Daddy?”


End file.
